Should i register as a business?

kms26

Hi,

Sorry if this is a little long winded, but please bear with me.

I have been a member on ebay for about 3 years. I have a private sellers account with a rating of 1065. I have always sold just bits and pieces from around my home and more recently craft supplies and handmade cards.

Last week an opportunity came up to sell via a dropshipper, i have done research and they are real with real products. Last night i logged onto my paypal account for it to tell me it is now limited because of the activity on my account.

The deal i have with the dropshipper is i sell their item once it is despatched and i have a tracking number, that i can check, I then send them the money after fees and my comission.

I suppose i was a bit niave to think i could have that amount of money going into my account without flags being raised, but my question is what doo i do now? I updated my paypal account to premier last night, but what about ebay?

I buy and sell through the same account and i have read that you should have a selling account seperate to a buying account, how do i do this?

My husband is registered as Self employed if that is any good? I am a stay at home mum and the only benefit i qualify for is Child Benefit.

I would appreciate any help.

texranger

yes because you are using a dropshipper this is now a business arrangement, so you will need to upgrade your ebay and paypal account to business accounts and also inform HMRC

kms26

I think i sort of knew that when i was typing but just need a second opinion. My husband is Self Employed and obviously registered, do i need to do it in my name or could he?

Crowqueen

You should have been registered as a business from the moment you started making handmade cards to sell on.

I think you should give HMRC a call, they can probably help you out with some of the more technical questions.

Regarding the new account, you might want to register both a new buying account and a new private selling account so you can keep your business sales separate from any private sales you want to make. You just sign up to eBay again, the only details that need to be different are unique email addresses, which then need to also go onto your Paypal account. You can have eight email addresses attached to the same Paypal account.

Oliver14

You should already have registered as a business. By selling handmade cards you were officially a business so should have declared thise earnings to the HMRC.

I really would be very cautious selling via a dropshipper you are relying on them to dispatch the item within a suitable period of time and the products to be of good enough quality. If there are delays in dispatch. Your account will suffer as you will get hit by your DSRs. Some very big sellers have gone under due to dropshipping problems.

To open another account for buying. You just need to open one you will need a different email adress to your current one.

Upgrading business account

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/how-to-register-business.html

I though would think long and hard about dropshipping

kms26

I only started making cards last year and a few weeks ago someone asked if i would be putting them on ebay to sell them, i have only sold about 5 on ebay and didn't know that i was meant to register that with ebay until last night!!

i will ring HMRC i think :cool:

kms26

I am really worried now, i feel so stupid and niave

Crowqueen

No need to be worried. Since you have been trading less than 3 months, you will be OK even with HMRC.

Good luck - and I would echo Oliver's concerns about dropshipping. It's far better to have stock on hand. I bought an item from a dropshipper at Christmas and she had major problems during the snow because she was responsible for the items but had no control over them. She received an awful lot of bad feedback because her suppliers - HMV in my case - were letting her down left, right and centre. I ended up leaving her a neutral because she promised me a replacement and she never got in touch when I asked her for it. The item arrived, so I repaid, but it really didn't end well for her.

I think I would reconsider what you are doing before jumping in at the deep end and destroying a healthy account.

kms26

Is there a way i can find out if my dropshipper are real etc? I did research them but i am really worried now

Crowqueen

Well, they may be real, that's not a problem, but you don't know how they cope with difficulties. Where are they located?

Oliver14

kms26 wrote: »

Is there a way i can find out if my dropshipper are real etc? I did research them but i am really worried now

Sorry didnt mean to worry you. As Crowqueen said they may be real. Its what happens when there are problems. The customer will always come back to you so you will take any flak and your account will take hits for their problems. Some people successfully run business with dropshippers. All I wanted to do was make you aware of possible problems. Ebay is different to most other venues the importance of keeping your DSRs at good levels should never be underestimated and delays in things like posting and quality can seriously effect these.

Personally I like to have the items in hand so that I have full control.